The 4th of July That Florida Straight Up Refused to Celebrate
Back in 1776, the land that would become South Florida wasn’t fighting for independence. In fact, our state capital was literally setting the Founding Fathers on fire.
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The real bones of South Florida.
Early settlement, development, prohibition, corruption, booms, busts, and the quiet deals that shaped everything.
Back in 1776, the land that would become South Florida wasn’t fighting for independence. In fact, our state capital was literally setting the Founding Fathers on fire.
Continue Reading
Local legend says pirates anchored off what is now Fort Lauderdale Beach. We investigated the folklore, and found coordinates, oral histories, and no definitive answer.Continue Reading
Prohibition didn’t make Americans stop drinking.It made them better planners. When the Volstead Act went into effect in 1920, Washington imagined a country sobering up out of respect for the law. South Florida imagined supply chains. You don’t ban a habit. You reroute it. And Broward County, quietly, was alreadyContinue Reading
If you want to understand Fort Lauderdale, don’t start with the skyline.Look down. Before the towers, before the drawbridges learned their choreography, before anyone thought “waterfront” meant brunch, the river was already making decisions. The New River didn’t wait for permission. It didn’t follow a polite, linear plan. It bent,Continue Reading
Every city has a founding myth.Fort Lauderdale has a founding rumor. Not the kind involving buried treasure or noble pioneers shaking hands at sunset. This one is quieter. Less ceremonial. It sounds like a boat idling just out of sight, a ledger that never quite balances, a shrug followed byContinue Reading
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